September 26, 2011

[I]t is clear the Milwaukee County district attorney's office is investigating charges that Wisconsin Right to Life offered rewards for volunteers....

During the recall races, [Wisconsin Right to Life] had sent an email that... offered "rewards for volunteers who make an impact over the weekend by educating and encouraging family and friends to vote by absentee ballot."

Those who signed up 15 "pro-life/pro-family voters" by July 5 would get a $25 gift or gas card as a reward. The person signing up the most people in each Senate district would win a $75 gift or gas card....

[Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf] acknowledged in August that he was looking into a complaint by the state Republican Party and Media Trackers, a conservative advocacy group, over what has been dubbed the BBQ-for-votes scandal.

Wisconsin Jobs Now, a coalition of community and labor groups led by the Service Employees International Union, held at least five parties on Milwaukee's northwest side in which it offered voters free food (including chicken and ribs from Speed Queen), drawings for prizes and free shuttles to Milwaukee City Hall so they could cast absentee ballots in the Darling-Pasch contest.

33 comments:

Did you think the people in front of Walmart's, when they ask you to sign their petitions ...aren't being paid? They get half a dollar for every signature. So, when you see such a sheet, run your eyeballs over the "cash value."

And, while we're "investigating this" ... Why not "investigate" all those robo-calls?

Plus the wonderful one that went viral ... when Clark heard the woman answer his question "Do you know there's an election?" ... Had her phone answering machine recorder going ... So she said "SUCH A SHAME" ... before slamming down her receiver ...

Which did not disconnect her phone. So you heard Clark saying he wanted to call her back just to beat her up!

This is just a crazy tempest in a teapot. "Signatures" need to be validated ...

I understand calling the freebies to voters bribery, though if I were the prosecutor, I wold not go after people offering a little barbeque, unless they used Kansas City barbeque sauce, which is an abomination in the eyes of God.

But surely you can pay people to help get out the vote. And if you can pay them outright, why can't you offer some benefit like a gift card to volunteers who perform well? Maybe I am naive, but I fail to see harm in either party doing that.

We know they've got people trying to get out the vote. Is requiring entirely uncompensated volunteers merely a way to try to reduce effectiveness?

It doesn't make much sense to oppose specific activities like this--there are too many ways to influence the absentee ballot process to control them all. The problem is the absentee ballot itself. People used to need a good reason to get one, now they just need to ask for it. That's the real problem here.

If you don't care enough to show up, then at least care enough to not vote.

What leaves me a bit put off here is the blatant hypocrisy about all of it. The left has been doing this sort of thing heavily for decades now. Probably forever, or at least since states started cracking down on giving away walking around money.

Yes, I know. There is a critical distinction here. The potential perps were apparently trying to get people to vote Republican, instead of Democratic, where, apparently anything goes.